‘Putin’s GULAG More Horrible than Stalin’s,’ Researchers Say

Staunton, May 7 – Many people of good will around the world have been horrified by the case of Rizvan Ibragimov who has been subject to electro-shocks and other forms of torture for writing a history of Chechnya challenging the version approved by Ramzan Kadyrov, but they have dismissed such crimes as “Chechnya specific” (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/302255/).

But two researchers who have examined the issue of mistreatment of prisoners in Russia, Aleksandr and Olga Belyaev, say that is a mistake because torture is now widespread in the Russian penal system and that, in their view, “Putin’s GULAG is more horrible than Stalin’s” (akirama.com/2017/05/06/3565/).

The Russian penal facilities in Chelyabinsk oblast, they say, are “known among thousands of convicts as ‘the gestapo.’” They will do almost anything to avoid being sent there, apparently including taking their own lives lest they fall victim to…